Press Release: 2025-03-12 00:00:00

Vote Explainer - H.R. 1968 - Continuing Resolution (2025)

 

March 11, 2025 

Transparency is vital to democracy. Below please find explainers for key votes I took in the 119th Congress.





Vote Explainer: H.R. 1968 – Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025

Today, I voted against the “Continuing Resolution” that will keep the federal government funded through the end of September. We need to see whether the Senate will now vote for the bill, but I want to explain why I voted against it. 

Congress’s inability to pass annual spending bills on time or without chaos is indicative of the partisanship that has left Congress stuck in recent years, focused more on partisan potshots than serving the American people. If Congress were doing things as we should, we would finish passing annual appropriations bills by September each year. The very fact that we are now – in March 2025 – voting on an appropriations bill that should have been finished by September 2024 speaks to the deep dysfunction and inability to govern that has been a hallmark of recent Republican majorities. No small business would get away with setting its budget for the upcoming year six months after that year began! 

Last September, when the fiscal year was coming to a close and spending bills had still not been finalized, Congress kept kicking the can down the road through a series of short-term bills that kept the government open for a few weeks or months at a time – all in the name of passing a “final” annual spending bill at a later date. Most recently, right before Congress wrapped up its work for the year before Christmas, Congress punted again - making March 14 the new deadline when federal funding would run out. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson chose this later date so that he could be elected Speaker again in January without angering the farthest-right House Republicans who hate any spending bill. Which leaves us where we are now: trying to keep the lights on amid the chaos and dysfunction of the second Trump administration. 

Nobody wants the government to shut down. The American people deserve to have the services they depend upon functioning, from national parks being open to seniors being able to reach out to Social Security for assistance. And federal employees deserve to be paid on time for their hard work. That is why I have often been willing to cross the aisle and support keeping the government open in the past, even when large numbers of Republicans are voting to shut it down.

But voting for this CR will only reward Elon Musk’s bad behavior. As you all know, ever since the start of the second Trump administration, Elon Musk and DOGE have been running rampant through the federal government – cutting programs, contracts, and workers haphazardly, with no regard for the chaos or pain they unleash. Under their watch, they have defunded the people who are working to prevent Ebola outbreaks, and they accidentally fired the nuclear safety teams. They’re firing tens of thousands of veterans, worsening care at the VA, and imperiling our national security by closing offices in the Pentagon and elsewhere that play important roles in keeping us safe. President Trump and Congressional Republicans have been blessing this bad behavior both explicitly and implicity, by not demanding that Elon Musk follow the law. 

I have said for weeks that I could be persuaded to vote for a spending bill if it made clear that Congressional appropriations are in fact the law and that under the Constitution President Trump and Elon Musk must follow the laws passed by Congress. Unfortunately, today’s CR will only grant Elon Musk and President Trump more leeway to make federal spending decisions and cut or ignore government programs and services that they dislike. Laws passed by Congress are not mere advice for Elon Musk to disregard as he chooses. We need to make clear that even unelected billionaires like Elon Musk need to follow the law. 

Congressional Democrats want to keep the government open. But voting for today’s CR would only suggest to President Trump and Elon Musk that they have a green light from Congress to continue wrecking havoc. I could not support such a message during a time when they are attacking veterans, cancelling small business contracts, and chaotically getting us into a trade war with our closest allies. The American people deserve oversight of Trump’s actions, and the Constitution demands it.